Ladies and Gentlemen Barleywine Style Ale
Premium European malts, hops from New Zealand and the Yakima Valley, and house-made candi syrup combine in our golden version of an American barleywine. The nose is redolent of peach cake, lime blossoms and clementines; on the palate vanilla icing and juicy citrus meld with a firm bitterness. Ladies and Gentlemen, here’s to another great year! 11.0% ABV

More User Reviews:

750 ml bottle, 2014 release, bottle #016 out of 500. Served in a snifter, the beer pours a mostly clear ruby red/dark orange color with about an inch off-white head. Head retention and lacing are both decent enough. The brew smells like caramel and bready malt, citrusy hops (tropical fruit, limes, orange peel), and a bit of vanilla. Taste is similar to the aroma, it tastes like caramel and bready malt, citrusy hops (lime, citrus peel, grapefruit), and some light floral hops and vanilla. There's also a nice lingering bitter hoppy finish. Mouthfeel/body is medium, it's somewhat coating and has moderate carbonation. I usually enjoy English style barleywines more than American style ones, but I thought this was good. Seventh Son has been doing a great job with their bottled releases lately and this one is no different, it's definitely worth trying. $10.99 a bottle. (882 characters)

Appearance is a beautiful copper orange to ruby red. Semi transparent. Look a little too light bodied for a Barleywine, but we will see. The thin off-white head dissipates into a ring around the glass. No lacing to speak of.

Right off the bat you taste alcohol and zesty citrus. Very ripe and tart. Mouth puckering orange, grapefruit, lemon and lime... A touch of caramel and vanilla in there. Bitter and numbing aftertaste with a floral bouquet type of hop flavor.

Very, very drying. I feel like I need a Gatorade and a glass of chocolate milk to rehydrate. Carbonation is kind of high too.

Not only do I think this is a very mediocre American Barleywine, it is a very average beer in general. Flavors are all very flat. Disappointing. (894 characters)

A - pours a hazy bright orange with a half finger of off white head. Head has good staying power and provides a small amount of lacing. Head is composed if small bubbles.

S - opens up with a lot of citrus aromas. Lots of orange peel. Citrus notes quickly make way to vomit aromas. As the beer warms the vomit aroma intensifies.

T - drinks more like a malty IIPA than a barleywine. Hops take the center stage with a lot of citrus found in the nose dominating the initial flavor. Some caramel flavors pick up mid palate after the tongue is blasted by hops on the front end justnto give headway back to a citrus hop dominated finish. A medium bitterness lingers in the late palate. The vomit smell isn't as prevalent in the flavor but still exists in the mid and late palate, especially as the libation warms.

M - medium-light bodied. A good amount of carbonation with a drier example of the style makes it slightly pricky on the tounge and slightly abrasive.

D - drinkability is extremely low. Significant fermentation issue flavors paired with an overly dry, slightly over carbonated example makes this more difficult to drink than doing discrete mathematics work back in college!!

Overall, quite a disappointing beer, especially for the $12 price point and the hype the brewery put behind the limited run of 500 bottles. I'm not sure if there is some infection or the yeast is stressed so much, but there are obvious flaws in the beer. The visuals indicate a lack of crystal and dark malts that provide complexity in most better BW's. I'm not sure this would ever be a good BW as brewed, even without the fermentation issues because of an apparently poor recipe design for the style. Drain poured 3/4 of the bottle unfortunately because of fermentation issues. (1,821 characters)